Years ago, the travel industry was controlled by a few large travel companies that booked holidays, air tickets, bus tickets, and hotels for their customers. However, with the emergence of the internet, smaller travel agencies started mushrooming in the industry and customers started making their own reservations. Which of the following can be inferred from this information?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The travel industry changed from a consolidated structure to a fragmented one.

1. Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Consolidated market: a few large firms dominate (oligopoly); high entry barriers and concentrated control.
- Fragmented market: many small firms, low concentration, increased competition (can resemble monopolistic competition).
- Internet effects: lowers search and entry costs, enables disintermediation (consumers book directly), and allows many small agencies to enter easily.
- Buyer/seller power: greater competition typically reduces incumbent pricing power and increases buyer bargaining power.

2. Step-by-step reasoning
- Premise: Years ago a few large travel companies booked most services for customers = market concentration/oligopolistic or consolidated structure.
- Change: Emergence of the internet allowed smaller travel agencies to "mushroom" and customers to self-book = many more market participants and direct transactions.
- Result: The presence of many small agencies plus individual customers making reservations indicates reduced market concentration and greater fragmentation.

3. Intermediate logical steps
- Fewer firms → consolidated. More firms and direct customer action → fragmented.
- Internet reduces costs to entry and search, so incumbents lose exclusive control.
- Competition increases, so market structure shifts toward fragmentation (more firms, differentiated offerings, price competition).

4. Why the correct answer is correct
- The statement directly describes a historical move from a market dominated by a few large firms to one with many small firms and self-service customers. That is the textbook definition of moving from a consolidated to a fragmented industry structure.

5. Why other options are incorrect
- "The pricing power of the incumbent firms has increased." Incorrect: increased competition and direct booking reduce incumbents’ pricing power.
- "The bargaining power of buyers in the travel industry has decreased." Incorrect: buyers gained options and information, so their bargaining power increased.
- "The structure changed from monopolistic competition to an oligopolistic one." Incorrect: the situation describes the opposite direction (from few dominant firms toward many competitors), not a move to oligopoly.

6. Conclusion
The correct inference is that the travel industry changed from a consolidated structure to a fragmented one, which matches the provided answer.

类似问题

A perfectly competitive firm is said to be more efficient than a monopoly firm because

A perfectly competitive firm is said to be more efficient than a monopoly firm because

According to the video, which market structure category is the car market best described as?

Which market structure has many firms, no market power, a homogenous/identical product and is very easy to enter?

Which market structure has -a small number of firms, each with high level of market power; -high barriers to entry, making it difficult for new firms to enter; and -mutual interdependence among firms?

The threat of competitors’ entering a market is very high in industries that perform a(n) _ role and in industries where the primary product or service is _.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of an oligopoly?

更多留学生实用工具

智能学习助手

风格化写作助手

论文查重助手

文献引用助手

课堂转译助手

课堂笔记助手

Quiz搜索助手

学校历年真题

智能刷题助手

智能匹配练习

希望你的学习变得更简单

类似问题

A perfectly competitive firm is said to be more efficient than a monopoly firm because

A perfectly competitive firm is said to be more efficient than a monopoly firm because

According to the video, which market structure category is the car market best described as?

Which market structure has many firms, no market power, a homogenous/identical product and is very easy to enter?

Which market structure has -a small number of firms, each with high level of market power; -high barriers to entry, making it difficult for new firms to enter; and -mutual interdependence among firms?

The threat of competitors’ entering a market is very high in industries that perform a(n) _____ role and in industries where the primary product or service is _____.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of an oligopoly?

更多留学生实用工具

希望你的学习变得更简单

The threat of competitors’ entering a market is very high in industries that perform a(n) _ role and in industries where the primary product or service is _.